“What’s that you’re listening to?” – The tracks that helped inspire Elemental
The Mighty Vipers are an eclectic bunch, plus we came from a number of different musical backgrounds.
We’ve always had a passion for the variety of flavours that music has to offer, which is pretty obvious if you’ve heard the genre hopping to be had on our new album Elemental.
It would be impossible to catalogue the entire spectrum of different tracks that have inspired us over the years, but we can at least give you a snapshot of what some of us are digging, some absolute classics and some songs that helped inspire us to write Elemental.
These are in no particular order and we’ll probably post a Spotify link to an actual playlist on one of our accounts at some point to make all the tracks easier to find.
Jungle Fire – Firewalker
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Skax7CD4fKEyndi8KK3BU
The afrobeat vibes were sneaking onto Elemental and tracks like this really help sell it as a genre. Although anything with heavy brass and a funky dance-able beat is going to make us smile. Plus this a bit of a beast of a tune.
The Toasters – Jackie Chan
https://open.spotify.com/track/6NsJIkmml0RSZAfkz7Q9KX
Back in the day the Catch It Kebabs played quite a few times with the Toasters and recently our bassist and our drummer played with them for one of their UK tours. We were a ska band back before the Mighty Vipers and that tradition has continued into our new material. There very few genres that make you grin and bounce around like an idiot as much!
The Cat Empire – The Chariot
https://open.spotify.com/track/0peYAmI5sjt67CFMgmUfjq
Pretty much one of our biggest influences as band, we absolutely love these guys! This track is pretty much perfect example of what we’re about. Party vibes with multiple influences popping up in one track. Plus lyrically it sums us up nicely as well (never yield unto conformity) . Plus check that brass… oof!
Hackney Colliery Band – No Diggity
https://open.spotify.com/track/0p4dItZAMD7Jo5kFryyTO4
You have to love a belting brass cover, plus this one is inspired! There’s a load of really good brass led bands going about currently so its a bit of a golden era for fans of brass. Plus these guys are supposed to be superb live (cant wait to gt the chance to see them).
Gardna, Bahia – Festival Season
https://open.spotify.com/track/0PL2wyeTbpOltqEAAhgmhA
Festival is truly upon us and the Mighty Vipers are doing few this year too. This track sums up the festival vibes nicely. It was a bit of a surprise find a while back on a compilation of Brighton Institute of music tracks and has a wicked vibe about it.
Treme Brass Band – The Treme Song
https://open.spotify.com/track/3HCxGoV7i6rVuJuLGb1Yy5
We’re loving us some New Orleans brass vibes right now. Those of you have seen Treme know what an amazing show it is and what a stellar soundtrack it has. New Orleans is on a number of our bucket lists to visit and if this track is anything to go by it’ll be one hell of a time if we ever do get to go there.
Ticklah – Si Hecho Palante
https://open.spotify.com/track/0tJHG9uvyPkNVwxYx2UKJ7
The Latin influence is there for all to see on Elemental and we all have a real love of the adaptable nature of such music. This tune from Keyboardist Ticklah (who played with the Easy Star All Stars) shows just how versatile those Latin vibes can be.
The Black Seeds – Fire
https://open.spotify.com/track/2azwVKZI3UYuJVDjNXB4pY
We’re not sure what is about Australia and New Zealand but it produces some amazing eclectic bands. Its not often we as a band all agree on funk tracks (its an acquired taste it seems) but this is one we can all agree on. There’s a funk influence to be found on elemental and its likely to be one that continues onto the new EP we’re in the process of writing.
If you’ve read this far we hope you’ve enjoyed this little list, we’re probably going to be building on this gradually and updating it with fresh tracks and some tunes from some of the amazing bands that we’re friends with/played with as well.
